What did you do to your x40 today???

[Vacu]

It never ceases to amaze me (35 years a driver) what a difference new wiper blades make. Chopped one of the old ones to replace the rear wiper, yes I'm thrifty!

[clarkey1984]

Started making my diy top shock fixings to temporarily combat them leaning because the new mounts are shot already, most of the way there, just got to tap the threads into them, borrowed the tap and die set from work, perfect, goes from m3 all the way to m14 with various pitches, plus also contains unf, unc and some npt taps as well, and is there an m12 x 1.25, is there buggery, 1.5 and 1.75 but no 1.25, luckily the tool place round the corner is open until 1pm.

[baldmosher]

Originally Posted by Worms

Took the driver's door panel off before breakfast to see if I could get the exterior handle to work, but it looks like I need to remove the handle assembly itself to get into the plastic box that covers its works. Didn't have enough time to investigate further, so had to put it all back together before driving to work.

Any advice or links to an exploded diagram of the exterior door handle assembly, would be much appreciated!

Assuming that the catch has snapped so the handle is just puling without opening the door? Gatos is the man to ask. Watching him do it made me very glad I wasn't figuring it out for myself! Looks easy enough to do the steps once you know how it's done. Getting the assembly to come away looks a very fiddly job, but once it's out, you're on easy street.

There's a long steel pin that goes through the whole assembly, handle and catch. You can pull out the pin making the whole thing come apart, replace any bits that are damaged from a spare handle, and put it all back together before knocking the pin back through. If you have a spare handle and your assembly is colour coded then that's the best approach. Finding a handle assembly in the right colour can be difficult.

Putting it all back looked even fiddlier, I must admit.

[baldmosher]

Back from the mechanic
- Changed squeaky aux belt
- Fixed the washer pump issue, a bodged fix in the past had corroded connectors, so a clean up and new plugs, and now it's all right as rain (pun intended)

Still not sure what's causing the random stalling issue, but he says there's no engine fault codes so I'll plug my reader in when I have time and see what it says.

Also, word of warning, Magnetti Marelli struts, keep an eye out for them untwisting as mine came apart last week and I now have two annoying gouges out of the paint under the boot hatch.

[clarkey1984]

And that concludes today's bodgery. One down one to go, as I only have basic tools at home making them is harder than I expected, the vice I have is only a small woodworking one and as such is tiny and also has smooth jaws, I had to use the vice and some mole grips to hold it still as I tapped, I've managed to bend the vice and also partially pull it off the bench, so it's time to stop for the day.

Here's the end result anyway, although this will be welded to the mount once here both are done.

[druid]

Well i did a 170 miler on mixed roads and got a 36.5mpg, worth putting the injector cleaner in after all.

[Vacu]

Excellent news the MOT was a success. One advisory for front pads, as Gatos showed me how to do the back pads (cheers mate) I'll put new pads on the front pronto.

[AndyPants]

Fitted the new centre splitter after waiting a couple of days for the paint to harden Shame the Volvo 2K Lacquer has now set in the can... guess its a one time deal.

[V40Vinnie]

Fitted some flatter more aerodynamic Aero Vu wiper blades much better than the old school ones it had fitted that took up the bottom 3 inches of the windshield

[foeism]

Gave Vivian a service, and hoping the head gasket behaves on our trip to Dorset. Using water, and the water vapour from the exhaust, are the tell tales, ad read on here. Shame really, really love the T4.